Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi. I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
And I spend most of my time talking in these Frame By Frames about fiction films...
films that are either made in Hollywood or abroad, which follow fictional plots.
But we haven't really talked about documentaries.
So, today I want to talk about some the most important documentary film makers in film history...
people who really created the medium.
What is a documentary film?
A documentary film is one which tries not to intrude on human existance...
which tries to document people and things as they actually are...
and tries to gain privileged access to places normally we wouldn't be able to go.
There is much debate, of course, about how much you're intruding when you're making a documentary film
because you're choosing what to film and what not to film,
and what to leave in and what to cut out.
And also many documentary films have narration, which sort of slants the images one way or another.
So, bearing that in mind, the question about what is a documentary film,
and also what documentary films have bias is a very tricky thing, of course. This is part of film criticism.
But here are just a few.
Santiago Alvarez made a film called "Now," in 1965, which was in support of the Human Revolution.
Les Blank is an American filmmaker whose films include "Garlic is as Good as 10 Mothers," which is a great film.
"Verner Herzog Eats his Shoe," This was a film which Verner Herzog, as a result of a bet that this film would never be released,
ate a shoe when it was.
"I didn't mean to eat this shoe in public. I intended to eat it in a restaurant.'
Stan Brackage, an American filmmaker, made a series of films about the police in Denver,
and also an autopsy room, and also a hospital... places that are sort of forbidden zones, where the public is not supposed to go.
Nick Broomfield made a documentary about Ilene Wernoz, the serial killer.
"Couldn't even get a fair trial. Couldn't even get an investigation or nothing!"
Ken Burns, of course, is one of the most famous documentarians,
with films like "The Civil War," "Baseball," and "Jazz."
Frank Capra, of course, did the "Why We Fight" series during World War Two,
explaining to the American public, using captured Japanese and Nazi footage about why we were in the war.
Emile De Antonio is one of the most important documentary filmmakers.
His first film was "Point of Order," in 1964, which covered the Army McCarthy hearings.
And which was composed entirely of Kinescopes of the Army McCarthy hearing from 1954, which were televised on television.
Jonathon Demy, in a lighter vein, made "Stop Making Sense," which is a documentary of Talking Heads in concert,
which I'm very glad that we have.
"You may ask yourself, how do I work this?"
Kirby ***, made a film which is very famous called "This Film is not Yet Rated," which is about the Motion Picture rating board, in 2006.
Robert Drew is one of the pioneers of sync-sound documentary filmmaking,
which amazingly only began in 1960, when you had a hand-held, light-weight, 16mm camera,
with a film called "Primary" in 1960.
Robert Flargherty, going back to the beginning of the documentary tradition, most famously made "Nanook of the North" in 1922,
which is about Nanook, who is an Eskimo, and his daily fight for survival.
He later made "Mulana," which is set in the south seas in 1926.
And the "Louisiana Story," which was actually sponsored by the S.O. Oil Company,
but which was a documentary that was completely hands-off about the Louisiana swamps.
Verner Herzog has made a series of documentaries recently like "Cave of Dreams," in 3D, which is a beautiful film.
And before that, "Grizzly Man," in 2005, about a young man who lived with bears in the north,
until unfortunately he did not come to a good end.
"I will die for these animals. I will die for these animals. I will die for these animals."
Humphrey Jennings, another British documentarian, "Fires Were Started," and "A Silent Village."
Claude Landsman made "Shoah" in 1985, which is perhaps the greatest and most effecting film about the Holocaust that has ever been made.
Chris Market directed a number of films like "Sans Soliel" in 1983.
Pare Lorenz made "The River" in 1938.
More recently Ross Mackelwy directed "Sherman's March" in 1986,
And Albert Masels, who was one of the most famous documentarians, directed "Salesman," in 1968, about some very desperate bible salesman.
"Gimme Shelter" in 1970, which is about the Rolling Stones concert in Altomont, which turned into a complete disaster.
And "Grey Gardens" in 1975.
MUSIC
Errol Morris directed "The Thin Blue Line" in 1988.
D.A. Pennebaker made the definitive rock and roll documentary about Bob Dylan with "Don't Look Back" in 1967.
He also made "Monterey Pop" in 1968, and "The War Room" in 1993, which is about the election of Bill Clinton as President.
"And I think we're going to win tomorrow. And I think the Governor is going to fulfill his promise to change America."
But I think probably I'll end with the most controversial of the documentarians, who is really more of a propagandist than anything else, and that's Michael Moore.
"Hi. I'm Michael Moore."
"Roger and Me" in 1989, "Farenheit 9-11" in 2004, and "Bowling for Columbine" in 2002.
This is more or less propaganda filmmaking and advocacy.
"Those are his bullet holes from your bullets. That's where the Kmart bullets went in."
Frederick Wiseman emerges, I think however, as the most important documentary filmmaker of the late 20th century.
He's still working in the 21st.
His earliest film was "Titicut Follies," which was about a mental asylum in Massachusetts in 1967.
It went all the way to the Supreme Court, which banned it from being screened in the state of Mass.
because it depicts the conditions there so unflinchingly.
Since then he's made films like "High School," "Model," "Store," "Racetrack," "Canal Zone," "Welfare,"
and all of Wiseman's films are very famous for his ability to shoot hundreds of hours of footage,
and then edit it down with no narration to basically make films that are sometimes 2 and 3 hours long,
that really give you an experiential sense of being involved in the film,
That's what the best documentary films do. They bring it up close. They put you in the picture.
They tell you the truth. They try to get out of the way as much as possible.
Documentary films give you a window into the world, which is non-fictionalized,
and at its best non-mediated, which is what documentary films are supposed to do... bring you the world as it really is.